


Promise You'll Always Be There

by ByTheAngell (SomeLittleInfamy)



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Feels, Gen, Sad with a Happy Ending, ragnor is dead but it's part of the prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-08
Updated: 2019-08-08
Packaged: 2020-08-11 17:07:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20157100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SomeLittleInfamy/pseuds/ByTheAngell
Summary: When Magnus' best friend Ragnor dies, he isn't ready to let go... but when a new family moves into Ragnor's house will they discover more than just memories left behind?





	Promise You'll Always Be There

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [sh_ficletinstruments](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/sh_ficletinstruments) collection. 

> **Prompt:**
> 
> Magnus and Ragnor have been best friends since childhood. After a tragic accident claims his friend's life Magnus can't seem to let go. Often finding himself parked in front of his friend's house, his world is turned upside down then he pulls up to find moving trucks in front of the house and someone new seems to have moved in.

Magnus goes back to the house every night for weeks. Sometimes he swears he can hear Ragnor’s voice inside or see him in the window Magnus used to hit with rocks to get his attention (before Ragnor started keeping rocks in his room to throw back). 

It doesn’t register when the Fells move out, away from the constant reminders of the son they lost, that the house wouldn’t remain empty forever. The sight of moving trucks the following night feels like a punch to the gut as Magnus watches the light in Ragnor’s room - Ragnor’s _ old room _ \- turn on. A boy appears who is definitely not Ragnor. 

Catarina suggests Magnus try to make friends but he can’t - he can’t go back into that house. In fact, though it isn’t his fault, Magnus can’t stop hating the new boy for tarnishing something so important to him. Magnus now stops outside the house to look up through the window at a darker wallpaper which covers Ragnor’s green paint and feels sick. 

Magnus refuses to talk to the new neighbors but that doesn’t stop them from trying to talk to him. He dodges them for a while, always not feeling well enough to come downstairs or too busy with something for school to answer the phone, but when he and the new guy living in Ragnor’s room end up in the same homeroom he has nowhere to run. 

“Hey, you’re the boy next door, right? Magnus?” New Guy says. When Magnus only glares he continues, unphased. “I’m Raphael. Listen, I get it, you don’t want to be friends. I don’t care. I just wanted to ask you if the family before us ever said anything about the place being haunted.” 

Magnus isn’t expecting that. “What?” 

“Mi madre is two seconds away from calling in a priest to exorcise the house. We hear voices and footsteps all the time, and it randomly smells like campfire even though nothing’s burning-” 

“Can I come over?” Magnus asks suddenly.

“I thought you hated me?” Raphael’s brows furrow together. 

“Please?” Magnus practically begs. 

“...sure, I guess. Meet me after school.” 

Magnus gives Raphael a ride home that day but hesitates in the car, almost unable to convince himself to walk up to the door. 

“You alright?” Raphael asks. 

Magnus nods, and forces himself to follow down the walk and through the front door. 

The moment he steps inside he can feel it. He can sense Ragnor - not just his memory, but _ him _. Without waiting for permission Magnus goes up the stairs to Ragnor’s room, noting the hint of burning wood that smells stronger with every step. 

“Ragnor loved camping. We’d go every summer even though I hated it,” Magnus says, breathing deep. 

“Thank you,” Magnus whispers. “For not leaving me yet.” 

It seems like Ragnor isn’t quite ready to stop being the boy next door, and Magnus has never been more grateful for his best friend’s stubbornness.

**Author's Note:**

> (Find me on [Tumblr](http://bytheangell.tumblr.com) and also on [Twitter](http://www.twitter.com/By_The_Angell)! <3 )


End file.
